Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, who made a significant contribution to ending apartheid in South Africa, died at the age of 90. The churchman’s death, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, marked “another chapter of mourning in our nation’s farewell to a generation of remarkable South Africans.” He stated that Archbishop Tutu had helped to leave behind “a free South Africa.” Tutu was a well-known personality in South Africa, both at home and internationally.
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He was one of the driving forces behind the fight to remove the regime of racial segregation and discrimination implemented by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. He was a contemporary of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela. Tutu’s death comes only weeks after the death of FW de Clerk, South Africa’s final apartheid-era president, at the age of 85. Tutu was “an iconic spiritual leader, anti-apartheid fighter, and worldwide human rights advocate,” according to President Ramaphosa.
Without Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s long and winding road to independence – and beyond – would be unthinkable to comprehend. While other struggle leaders were killed, exiled, or imprisoned, the diminutive, defiant Anglican priest was present at every stage, exposing the apartheid state’s hypocrisy, comforting victims, holding the liberation movement accountable, and daring Western governments to do more to isolate a white-minority government that he compared unequivocally to the Nazis. When democracy came to South Africa, Tutu used his moral authority to oversee the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which aimed to reveal the government’s atrocities against the white minority. Later, he turned that same ferocious scrutiny on the ANC, South Africa’s erstwhile liberation organisation, and its failures in governance.
Tutu’s personal courage and moral wrath will be remembered by many South Africans today. Tutu was always, forcefully, the voice of hope, as those who knew him best have often reminded us. And it is that hope, that optimism, complemented with his distinctive grins and cackles, that appears to be shaping how the world remembers and honours Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Desmond Tutu. Earlier in the day, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed Tutu’s death at the age of 90. Prime Minister Modi stated, “Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, was a beacon of hope for millions of people throughout the world. His focus on human decency and equality will be remembered for the rest of his life. I am profoundly sorry by his death and wish to express my sympathies to all of his fans. May his spirit find eternal rest.”
